The “Golden Hits Of The 60s”
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YOUNGBLOODS
“GET TOGETHER”
(Chester Powers)
RCA Victor 9752
No. 62 September 2, 1967
No. 5 September 6, 1969
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“Come on people now/Smile on your brother/Every body get together/Try and love one another, right
now.” Classic lines indeed. “Get Together” was jangling 12- string folk-rock, message music, and–as
faithful fans will attest–the Youngbloods at their very best.
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Jesse Colin Young (b. Perry Miller, Nov. 11, 1944, New York City) was a moderately successful folksinger
with two LPs under his belt–Soul of a City Boy (1964) and Youngblood (1965)–when he met a fellow
folkie and former bluegrass picker from Cambridge named Jerry Corbitt (b. Tifton, GA). When in town,
Jesse who lifted his name from Wild West figures Jesse James and Cole Younger and Grand Prix race car
driver Colin Younger–would drop in on Jerry, and the two would jam for hours, exchanging harmonies.
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Beginning in January 1965, the two began gigging on the Canadian circuit as a duo (eventually, as the
Youngbloods, Young would play bass, and Corbitt would play lead guitar). Corbitt introduced Young to a
bluegrass boy named Harmon Banana (b. Lowell Levinger, 1946, Cambridge, MA). “Banana” was handy
with the banjo, mandolin, mandala, guitar, and bass; he had played in both the Proper Bostoners and the
Trolls, and knew of a fellow tenant in his building who could flesh out the band. Joe Bauer (b. Sept. 26,
1941, Memphis), an aspiring jazz drummer with experience playing in society dance bands, was at first
quite unmoved by Banana’s offer to perform in a rock’n’roll outfit, but soon gave in.
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Once the line-up was set, Jesse Colin Young & The Youngbloods, as the group was then known, began
building a solid reputation from their club dates. (Early demo sides recorded in 1965 were later issued by
Mercury on the Two Trips album.) Their first gig had been at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village;
months later, they were the house band at the Cafe Au Go Go and had snagged a recording contract with
RCA Records. Jesse, though, was not too satisfied with the label. “Nobody [at RCA] was really mean or
anything; every body was just kind of stupid,” he explained to Rolling Stone. “They never knew what to
make of us, and tried to set us up as a bubblegum act … they never knew what we were, and never knew
how to merchandise us.” The arrangement did produce one solid success in “Grizzly Bear” (#52, 1967).
Several classic albums followed–The Youngbloods (1967; later retitled Get Together), Earth Music
(1967), and Elephant Mountain (1969). When that paean to universal brotherhood, “Get Together,” first
appeared in the Summer of Love, it did not sell well (#62, 1967). But two years later after the National
Council of Christians and Jews used the song as their theme song on radio spots–the track was rereleased
and cracked the Top 40.
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The Youngbloods recorded a few more albums, then split up. In an interview with Crawdaddy’s Peter
Knobler, Jesse ascribed the legendary act’s break-up to a conflict over one of his tunes, “Peace Song:’
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“I played “Peace Song” the night I wrote it during the recording session for Rock Festival at the Fillmore,
and the people just went crazy, they loved it! And the next night the guys played on it, and I didn’t dig it.
I thought [their playing] detracted from the power of the song. . . . For the first time since the band had
been together, I said, ‘I want to do this alone: Also, Joe [Bauer] said, ‘That’s not Youngblood music, that’s
you; I don’t want that on the Youngbloods album, and it hurt.”
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According to Young, tensions within the Young bloods came to a head a year later. “Banana came to
me and said, ‘Joe thinks that there’s some musical value to the [“Peace Song”), some musical direction: I
said, ‘Musical direction? Screw offl’ … It made me think, what am I doing in this band?”
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The group’s final LPs were Ride the Wind (1971), Good and Dusty (1971), and High on a Ridgetop (1972).
Corbitt, who had left the Youngbloods in 1971, became a producer (Charlie Daniels, Don McLean) and cut
two LPs on his own (Corbitt and Jerry Corbitt). Bauer made one solo record (Moonset) and, with
Banana, recorded as Banana & The Bunch (Mid Mountain Range) and Noggins (Crab Tunes). Jesse, the
Youngblood with the highest profile, established the solo career he apparently always wanted. No hit
singles so far (not even “Peace Song”), but albums like Light Shine (1974), Songbird (1975), and the live
On the Road (1976) have sold well. Perfect Stranger was issued in 1982; six years later, The Highway Is
for Heroes.
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In 1984, Banana reappeared with a band, the Bandits. Soon after, he dropped out of the music biz to run
a hang-gliding shop.